The work of
the countryside ranger has two main faces and these are dictated by the weather
and the season. My work in the field began in the summer, so I was thrown into
the chaos that is the heavy visitor season. The face of this season is that of
the socially interactive, “point of contact” person. The park where I worked
could happily expect over a thousand visitors, on a bright, sunny day, and
these people were all from different walks of life, with differing views on
what made a “good day in the country”.
There were
still the regular visitors, who came along rain or sunshine, and would stop for
a chat, to comment on the weather, and the number of visitors we had in that
day. Then there were those visitors that came for a special day out in the
country. Most of the time the two would move along happily, side by side, but
sometimes there was tension. This seems inevitable: the regulars naturally
developed a feeling of ownership of the park, while the summer visitors could be
a bit boisterous. This is where the diplomacy of the work became important. It
is also part of the policeman’s role in the job.
One day we
were called upon to break up a fight; it was not, as you might imagine, two
teenage boys, but a girl beating her boyfriend around the head with her
handbag. The language coming from the pair of them was unrepeatable. In the end
the only solution to the problem was to intervene carefully, and to call the
group a taxi; they’d had rather too much to drink to be able to drive. Needless
to say, the regulars were far from impressed. Sometimes the eyes and ears of
our regular visitors were invaluable in our looking after the park. While we
might be really busy in the visitor centre, someone may see something going on
elsewhere.
One example
of this is the time when a dog-walker heard the sound of chopping wood, and
noticed a tent on the top of an embankment. The main reason he mentioned it was
that camping was not allowed in the park, other than organised groups, such as
scouts. On investigating the tent we found a young ash tree had been hacked
half down, for no other reason than it was there; the hatchet still embedded in the tree. Waking the two
teenage boys, we challenged them on their behaviour, and they denied all
knowledge. We pointed out that the evidence went against them, and on offering
their hatchet back to them, they accepted it! They were then asked to leave.
Probably
one of the most common sources of our having to challenge visitors was the
portable barbecue. These really were the bane of our lives. The problem is that
whatever they are put on, grass or picnic tables, they burn an unsightly brown
rectangle. Unfortunately, by the time we had spotted the smoke, the barbecue
was well underway, and our requests that it be lifted onto some old timber were
not welcome. We were especially unwelcome at one barbecue, where the boys had
piled old sticks on it to make a camp fire, and had then thrown on an empty
aerosol, which exploded. Bearing in mind there were several other visitors
around, the group was asked to leave.
Of course
the summer is not just about challenging unruly behaviour, it is about customer
relations. This is the other face of the work. We were there to ensure that
people had an enjoyable visit. Whether this was simply giving directions on how
to get to the river most quickly or removing animals that had died in the park,
so that people did not get upset by them. This may seem like sanitising the
countryside, but we really didn’t want children playing with dead rabbits, or
trying to pet those that had myxomatosis.
Unfortunately, on my first day I
was to find a dead red squirrel, with no signs of injury. I radioed my manager
and asked him if he wanted it at the visitor centre. Once returned it was to be
sent off to assess what might have killed it. There was a healthy red squirrel
population in the park, and any chance that parapox (a disease carried by grey
squirrels, which is fatal to reds) was present was to be treated with the
utmost caution.
Our busiest
time was the summer school holidays. As I’ve mentioned there were the regular
visitors, the people out for an occasional day in the countryside, but there
were also those who came for the activities for children. There were far too
many activities to list them here, but they went from kite making to pond
dipping. There were four activities per week; two on Tuesdays and two on
Fridays, with one held in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
The first
activity I was to lead was a pond dip, and being the quietest of people (I was
always the quietest child in class), I was terrified. What if someone fell into
the pond? What if someone found something I couldn’t identify? In the end the
event went without a glitch, and I had a tremendous feeling of accomplishment.
Still, there were more activities to come, but this job builds your confidence
immeasurably. Soon I was leading activities without a second thought. The next
time I felt nerves as badly as I did on that pond dip was the following year,
at Easter.
It was the
Easter egg hunt and I, as the new starter had to organise it, read the clues
and lead it. The activity attracted about three hundred people, but like many
things in life, doing it was not as bad as anticipating it. I did, at one point
have to remind the parents that it was a children’s activity as some of them
were getting a bit carried away.
As the busiest time the summer was probably
the most fun, as the tasks varied greatly. However, when the summer holidays were
over and we could relax a little, there was a pleasant feeling of a job well
done and the anticipation of a quieter time.
Things
didn’t stop in the winter though. This was the time to start mending those
broken fences and cutting back those overgrown branches, so that the
horse-riders could pass through the bridle path. Winter was also the time for
planning and preparation for next year, a time of ideas for new activities.
This was quite a strange process; like planning your evening meal, when you’ve
just eaten your lunch. The activities had just finished, and yet we were
looking at the following year. Planning a pond dip while the snow piled up
outside was an odd sensation.
But the
plans had to be made, to encourage more visitors and ensure that they have a
positive experience. As I see it, the job of the ranger is to look after the
park and try to ensure that the visitors have a good time. Then they will leave
with a feeling of ownership, and respect for the countryside that they can
carry into other parts of their lives. This was always my intention and hope in
my time as a ranger.
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